Defense Contractor and a Former Manager Charged in Conspiracy to Bribe a Military Contracting Officer in Iraq

WASHINGTON — A federal grand jury in Oklahoma City returned an indictment
against a U.S. Department of Defense contractor and one of its former managers
for conspiring to bribe a military contracting officer in Iraq, the Department
of Justice announced today. The indictment was returned on Jan. 22, 2008, and
was unsealed today against Elie Samir Chidiac, a U.S. citizen, and Raman
International Inc. of Cypress, Texas, which does business as Raman Corporation.
Chidiac appeared in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma
today after having been arrested in Oklahoma City on Friday, Jan. 25, 2008.

Raman is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, and Chidiac is
charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery. Both are charged with
participating in a scheme to steer Defense contracts to themselves. Chidiac is
also charged with participating in a scheme with a co-conspirator military
officer to alter contracting documents to allow Chidiac to fraudulently obtain
payment for work not performed, which he then split with the officer.

According to the indictment, Chidiac and Raman Corporation gave money and other
things of value, including a Harley Davidson motorcycle, to a military
contracting officer in return for the award of U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)
contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars at Camp Victory, Iraq.

“We will aggressively prosecute those who commit fraud involving goods and
services destined for our military service personnel,” said Thomas O. Barnett,
Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department’s Antitrust Division.

Chidiac is charged in the indictment with conspiring to commit bribery by
giving money to an unidentified military contracting officer in Iraq in return
for that officer’s aid in perpetrating fraud on the United States. With respect
to that charge, the indictment states that, among other things:

An unidentified military contracting officer canceled contracts that were
already awarded to, and often had been performed by, third-party contractors;

The unidentified military contracting officer re-awarded those contracts to
Raman and fraudulently verified that Raman had performed the requisite service
or delivered the requisite goods;

Chidiac and the unidentified military contracting officer forged various
contracting documents and fraudulently modified the military contracting
database in order to create the appearance of propriety with respect to these
canceled and re-awarded contracts;

The unidentified military contracting officer authorized Chidiac to receive cash
payment on those contracts, which Chidiac did, despite the fact that neither
Chidiac nor Raman performed any work, provided any service, or delivered any
good with respect to these contracts;

Upon receipt of cash payment from the United States, typically in U.S. $100
bills, Chidiac remitted a portion of the money back to the unidentified military
contracting officer, often delivering the money to the officer at Raman’s
compound, adjacent to Camp Victory; and

The unidentified military contracting officer sent money received from Chidiac
via U.S. Postal Service to a family member in Midwest City, Okla.

A violation of the conspiracy statute carries a maximum sentence of five years
imprisonment and a fine of $250,000 for an individual and a fine of $500,000 for
a corporation. The fines could be increased to twice the gain from the offense
or twice the loss incurred by the victims of the crime.

“It’s critical for everyone to know that if they work with or for the U.S. Army
and are considering defrauding the government we have mechanisms and personnel
in place to defeat and fully investigate fraud,” said Brigadier General Rodney
Johnson, the commanding general of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command.
“This type of illegal activity, no matter what the extent, will not be
tolerated and violators will be brought to justice.”

Today’s charges are examples of the Department’s commitment to protect U.S.
taxpayers from procurement fraud through its creation of the National
Procurement Fraud Task Force. The National Procurement Fraud Initiative
announced in October 2006 is designed to promote the early detection,
investigation, and prosecution of procurement fraud associated with the increase
in contracting activity for national security and other government programs.

The investigation is being conducted by the Antitrust Division’s National
Criminal Enforcement Section; the Department of Defense, Defense Criminal
Investigative Service (DCIS), Tulsa Resident Agency; and the Department of the
Army, Criminal Investigations Division (Army CID), Dallas Resident Agency.
Anyone with information concerning illegal conduct in the procurement of good or
services in Iraq is urged to contact the National Criminal Enforcement Section
of the Antitrust Division at 202-307-6694; DCIS at 800-424-9098 or
hotline@dodig.mil; or Army CID at www.cid.army.mil.